Fitting T-Molding

Ladies and gentlemen of the cabinet-building class of 2007, if I could offer you one tip for yor project, t-molding woud be it. The long term benefit of t-molding has been proved by these pictures, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. (If you don't get it, shame on you. Search for Baz Luhrman)

Wow. This really did it. I'm not quite sure why, but banging in the t-molding turned the cabinet from a somewhat convincing black box into an actual arcade machine. It may only be a strip of red plastic, but sometimes it's the details that make everything sing.

I once again heartily commend to you the inexpensive CD I got from spystyle on eBay. If he ever stops selling it and is willing, I will happily redistribute it for him! He has some simple and effective advice about clearing out the router slot and cutting the fin on the T-Molding.

I got the first section in with a picture-hook hammer and an offcut of the speaker cloth. It worked, but I could tell it wos damaging the finish slightly. You really do need a soft mallet. Serenipitoustly, B&Q sell a white, non-marking rubber mallet for about £7. Perfect and worth every penny, even if it is used for only an hour or so. No marking, no damage, just a bit of rubbed off rubber that you can wipe down.

I wanted the edging all round the sides as the bottom edges do tend to get scraped, what with the low clearance. How do you get a mallet (and me) underneath a 1" groud clearance to pound in some trim when there is a half-tone monitor loose and trapped in the box?

Well, you can't lay the cabinet down, that's for sure. You can't swing a mouse, never mind a cat in that shed with an arcade machine in there. I resorted to tipping it up against the walls and shuffling the base out until it balanced, then crawling underneath. Dangerous? Why, of course. It would'nt be fun otherwise.

These are a couple of shots to show it off. Note the hole for the mains wire by the air intakes at the base.